Osborne will ditch debt target rather than seek more cuts

George Osborne is ready to take a political hit on missing the target rather than face the 'nightmare' of further cutsPaul Hackett/Reuters

George Osborne is getting ready to abandon his key target for reducing debt rather than find billions of extra pounds worth of cuts before the next election, it emerged yesterday.

The Chancellor is braced for the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to show that extra government borrowing has blown him off course from one of the goals in which he invested the credibility of the coalition — seeing the national debt start to fall by 2015.

The finding will increase pressure on Mr Osborne to spell out billions of pounds worth of cuts after 2015 to persuade the markets he remains serious about his other target, wiping out the structural deficit — that part of the deficit that remains when the economy is in full health.…